Chapter 4 Vocabulary
Terms
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- Natural selection
- A mechanism for evolutionary change in which environmental pressures cause certain genetic changes
- Edge effects
- The change in species composition, physical conditions, or other ecological factors at the boundary of two ecosystems
- Resource partitioning
- A biological community in which various populations share resources through specialization, reducing competition
- Ecological niche
- The role and position of a species within a community or ecosystem
- Ecological development
- The gradual process of environmental modification by organisms
- Parasite
- An organism that lives in or on another organism at that organisms expense
- Ecotone
- The boundary between two types of ecosystems
- Predator
- An organism that feeds directly on other organism to survive
- Primary productivity
- Synthesis of organic materials by green plants, using photosynthesis
- Intraspecific competion
- A community that competes for resources among members of the same species
- Diversity
- The number of species present in a community and the abundance of them
- Equilibrium community
- An ecosystem that is subject to periodic disruptions, usually from a fire, to prevent it from reaching a climax stage
- Pathogens
- An organism that produces diseases in a host organism disease, causing an alteration of one or more metabolic functions
- Commensalism
- A symbiotic relationship in which one member is benefitted and the other is neither harmed nor benefited
- Habitat
- A place of environmental conditions in which an organism lives
- Mutualism
- A symbiotic relationship in which two species benefit from their association
- Territoriality
- An intense form of intraspecific competition in which organisms define an area as their home or nesting area and defend it against members of their own species
- Abundance
- The number or amount of something
- Batesian mimicry
- A form of evolution in which an animal resembles the color, shape, or behavior of another animal that is protected by a defensive adaptation
- Symbiosis
- The living relationship of two species, through mutualism, commensalism, and parisitism
- Coevolution
- The proccess in which species exert pressures on each other to gradually evolve new features or behaviors as a result,
- Disclimax community
- Equilibrium community
- Primary succession
- Ecological succession that begins in an area in which no biotic community has existed before
- Plankton
- Microscopic organism that occupy the upper layers of water
- Mullerian Mimicry
- Evolution of two species in which both have stingers or other forms of defense mechanisms to resemble each other
- Pioneer species
- Primary succession on a terrestrial site
- Climax community
- A stable, long-lasting community that is reached in a successional series, determined by climate and soil type
- Tolerance limits
- Chemical or physical factors that limit the existance, abundance, or distribution of an organism
- Evolution
- A theory that states that random changes in the genetic material and competition for scarce resources caused species to change gradually
- Keystone species
- A species whose impact on its community is much larger and influential than would be expected from mere abundance
- Fire-climax communities
- An equilibrium community maintained by periodic fires; such as grasslands, and forests
- Environmental Indicators
- Organisms or physical factors that act as a gauge for environmental changes
- Secondary succession
- Succession in an area in which an existing community has once existed
- Complexity
- The number of species at each trophic level and how many trophic levels there are